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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23811943">The Daily Grind</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pyrasaur/pseuds/Pyrasaur'>Pyrasaur</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Invader Zim</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Dramatic Irony, Gen, Humor, Slice of Life</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2006-10-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2006-10-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 14:57:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>459</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23811943</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pyrasaur/pseuds/Pyrasaur</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Joe, a lowly dog pound worker, spends another boring day watching the same old dogs (including the loud green one).</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Daily Grind</h2></a>
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<p></p><div><p> </p><p>Mom was right, Joe decided as he started out the window - he should have been a doctor. But that didn't change the fact that he was sitting behind the front counter of the animal pound, in a swivel chair that didn't swivel anymore, facing the same forms he had been filling out every day for seventeen years. He drummed his fingers on the desktop, and grabbed a sheet from the top of the stack.</p><p><em>Requisition for Animal-Related Supplies</em>, it coldly informed him.</p><p>Well, he couldn't do paperwork without a properly sharp pencil, so he stuck a sleek new 2B into the electric sharpener. <em>Wrrrrrrrr. </em>Why did such a boring little pound need so many papers, anyway? Joe had been watching over the same handful of flea-bitten mongrels for what seemed like months: the brownish mutt, the twitchy terrier, the weird green dog that wouldn't stop shrieking about Mexican food, and the sleepy sheepdog. It wasn't like they <em>did</em> anything that would need a form, never mind one with an official-looking header and three places for supervisors to sign. Sometimes Joe wondered if anyone looked at his forms at all.</p><p>"Ah like mah tacos wit looooots o' ketchup!" came the green dog's tinny bark from down the hall.</p><p>Same as usual. The pencil still wasn't quite pointed right, it was jagged at the end and it'd only catch on the paper, so back into the sharpener it went. <em>Wrrrrrrrr. Wrrrrrrr. Wrr-wrrrrrr-wrrrrrrr.</em></p><p>The front door creaked open and slammed shut, and an old man stretched up onto his toes to peer over the counter.</p><p>"Excuse me, <em>human</em>," he said, "I believe you have my dog."</p><p><em>Wrrrrrrrrrrrr.</em> Was it normal for a pencil sharpener to make that funny whine as it slowed down? Maybe Joe could requistion a new one. He put down the pencil, and looked to the old man, who was glaring out from under his bushy eyebrows like Joe was a piece of gum peeled from the bottom of a smelly running shoe.</p><p>"Sure," Joe muttered, and reached for the big jangling keyring. At least it was something to do.</p><p>The green dog seemed vaguely happy to be out of its cage, but it was a pretty stupid thing and it seemed vaguely happy to be <em>anywhere</em>.</p><p>"Don't let me find you here again," the old man snapped, and the dog followed him with a bark that sounded remarkably like "yes, master".</p><p>They left, door slamming behind them, and Joe sat back down at his counter. One of the mutts gone - that meant he had to fill out a Departure of Animal form. He picked up his pencil, and found that it was pretty short for a new pencil, yes, but it still wasn't <em>quite</em> sharp enough. <em>Wrrrr-wrrrrr. Wrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. </em></p></div></div></div><div class="maxwidth">
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